The Jaguar XKSS, a limited line of British luxury supercars from the 1950s, are being resurrected.
Nine of 25 units of the Jaguar XKSS were destroyed in a factory fire in 1957. The British car brand stated Tuesday,
according to USA Today, that it will replace those nine lost vehicles and sell them for $1.4 million each.
"The original XKSS was based on Jaguar's highly successful D-type, which dominated long-distance sports car racing in the mid-1950s, winning Le Mans three years in a row, 1955, '56, and '57,"
wrote Forbes magazine on Wednesday. "In the course of seven years, Jaguar won Le Mans five times."
Sixteen of the 25 originally promised were already out the door when the 1957 factory fire happened, making them a hot ticket item among collectors. Five of the nine new Jaguar XKSS's have already been sold — two to Americans, one to a New Zealander, and two to buyers in the United Kingdom.
"The most famous [original XKSS] owner was Steve McQueen, who bought a secondhand XKSS, sold it to casino owner William Harrah, and then paid him double the initial amount to get it back a few years later,"
reported CNN.
"These days, the bill for a genuine XKSS would be pretty eye-watering. Most of the 16 original cars still exist, but if a tidy one were to fall under the hammer at the right auction, it could fetch $5 million or more," CNN added.
While the supercar will be modeled after the 1950s model, it will mostly be built with modern technology.
"Modern 3D printing and/or CNC (computer numerical control) milling will likely be used to create the checking fixtures used to perfect the body panels, but the panels themselves will be fashioned the olde worlde way, using an English wheel,"
wrote Motor Trends.
"Their engines will be brand new as well, built from scratch at [Jaguar Land Rover's] Whitley prototype engine center. The end result will be nine XKSS cars that are meticulously original, assembled with vastly better quality, which are far more identical than the original 16 were."